Mr. Chairman, one of my favourite thinkers, Thomas Paine, the American writer of the eighteenth century, once said "Whatever has a tendency to promote the civil intercourse of nations, by exchange of benefits, is a subject as worthy of philosophy as of politics." Today this exchange of benefits depends directly on the quality and quantity of practical knowledge, and this in turn is a direct function of the workings of the scientific and technological establishment. Science and its technologies (S&T) are therefore worthy of the deepest introspection and meticulous execution.

Ladies and gentlemen, members of this venerable house, the media and friends, today I shall seize the honour to be here, to raise briefly, an oft neglected matter, that of a scientific approach in business. Many businessmen still feel they can rely on gut feelings, common sense and wheeling and dealing to solve their inevitable problems. Unfortunately, this is no longer realistic because products, processes, equipment and machines, now inherently possess high scientific content. Raw material availability and selection, production, packaging, marketing, quality control and exit strategies, among other eventualities, are all conditioned by the progress of S&T. Furthermore, modern business management, organization and practice, rely heavily on information best obtained by the scientific research method, which affords logical ways to solve problems, predict markets and select opportune technologies.

Mr. Chairman, how can we as an economy explain the fact that most of our brightest science graduates are either out of jobs, engaged in unfulfilling routine banalities, or often forced into occupations far removed from their training and expertise. This at a time when we laud the importance of science to survival in the turbulence of the technological revolution, and the rigours of globalization.

This is not the forum to fully explain the elegance and utility of the scientific method, so I shall not dwell on this matter any further. Suffice it to say, that careful observations, analysis of the ensuing data, followed by deduction, informed action and learning, are the key elements to facility and efficacy in a technological world.

Mr. Chairman, from the very outset I shall categorically submit that Jamaica’s economy will continue to stagnate, commerce and business will grind to marginal indifference, if we do not increase investments in the selection, acquisition and use of unfolding scientific and technological knowledge. There is a tendency to think that we need not be concerned with this knowledge because foreign services, consultants and investments will bring wisdom to us. In a fast moving information environment, responsive change, guided by local analytical and technical skills and heuristic implementation, will be paramount for our businesses to flourish and preventing them from becoming heedless victims of technologically more aware foreign operations.

Today there is much criticism of the private sector for an obvious lack of ethics and entrepreneurship. This to my mind reflects symptoms of desperation, borne of an inordinate affinity to cling to the old, because of a scandalous incomprehension of the myriad alternatives spawned daily by technological progress. It is simply not good enough to seek technological solutions only when businesses and trade are falling apart. Research and experimental development (R&D) must be supported ahead of anticipated problems. We must desist from the verbal orgy of speculation on the uncertainties of economics, which is the current intellectual past time, and dwell more instead, on the ways to grasp the certainties of production.

Although there is much talk about the free market, not many countries have leveled their barriers to allow free flow of labour, services and technology, and almost all manage their trade. As a matter of fact, in the case of scientific knowledge, higher walls are being erected on the foundation of an all-embracing and avaricious international intellectual property system. What is so axiomatic about these developments is that one of the only aspects of truly free movement is the electronic transfer of funds. And here, speculative greed has caused massive upheavals in capital markets, as witnessed in Mexico in 1995 and more recently in Asia. What all this says is that we cannot sit down and accept the tendentious prescriptions of the metropolis and expect to remain a viable sovereign society.

There is no way around building a solid local technological information and investment system, in which the private sector plays a major role. In this regard, it is wise to remember that often we are not competing against single companies, but large conglomerates, governments and even unions of several countries. So this tendency to resist integration and hide information from local competitors, which can easily be accessed by outside contenders, is simply foolish, and does more to strengthen foreign concerns than upstage domestic rivals. We must compete amongst ourselves, yet find strength in common cause, when dealing with the outside.

At this juncture of Jamaica’s development, I do not think it is necessary to extol the many virtues of S&T to the country’s future. The power of S&T in economic development is overwhelmingly evident, as portrayed in the fact that no country that has invested in S&T is economically weak and no country that has ignored S&T is socially secure. Simply put those who have, or do not have, is now being determined by those who know, or do not know. The present parlous Jamaican production situation is further testimony to these facts.

Knowledge, specifically S&T knowledge, is the key which opens the doors to quality welfare and national prosperity. Jamaica’s future therefore rests directly on our capacity to promote, organize and deliver modern education and training, and these exercises must be infused with the scientific approach. A cadre of aware and skilled workers is what will determine the quality of life which is in store for us. It is surely not the ability to keep wages or prices low, nor for that matter, the number of visitors we attract. Rather, it is the ability of our leaders, decision-makers and workers, to be innovative in tackling the challenges ahead of us. These imperatives cannot be left to government alone, especially one that is grappling with serious social problems. The private sector must become genuine partners with the public sector and political directorate to build a national scientific and technological system, which actively responds to our socio-economic requirements.

Creative ways will have to be found to support rapid technological developments. It is not inapposite to once again raise the notion of a small, imperceptible, levy on imports, to match a pool of funds that the Government has already assigned to R&D, so that an effective national technological approach to business improvement and commerce expansion can be initiated. We cannot escape the fact that we will either have to pay for technological development now, or neglect this imperative and pay for the fall out from a steady decline in economy and society, later. There is no other option open to us.

Jamaica has had a long S&T history, dating back to before the start of this century. The island was one of the first to promulgate a S&T law in 1960, and Jamaica’s professionals are to be found in all fields of scientific endeavours across the world. So when it comes to weak S&T application in business and socio-economic development, Jamaicans cannot be excused as neophytes. However, we are guilty of much S&T rhetoric and precious little local action.

There is no doubt that we have had good scientists and admirable S&T institutions, but unfortunately we are yet to have a national commitment to the use of S&T to solve our social problems and upgrade our products and services to match global competition. This is evident in the fact that, while there is modest public sector support for S&T, there is no fund, or resource pool, nationally organized by the private sector for S&T. None of the umbrella private sector bodies, nor large individual concerns, have mobilized tangible and systematic aid for R&D. The only area where there is a semblance of such activity is in the recognition of the utility of computers in schools. Unfortunately, one gets the feeling that Jamaican leadership translates S&T progress to be synonymous with the installation of computers. These machines although powerful information processing and distributing tools, cannot do more than what they have been humanly programmed to do, and cannot go further than the receptive mind. Therefore I submit that, scientific thinking in every school is far more important than computers in every class room.

Jamaica has had an enviable agricultural R&D record, but this has been tarnished by pointless neglect in the past decade. Agriculture, big or small, is now fully fledged high technology business. Biotechnology holds the major promise for agriculture to meet the demands of growing populations and less arable land. Yet, although, Jamaica supports the Biotechnology Centre at UWI, there is little biotechnology receptivity at Bodles, or anywhere, for that matter, in the rest of the agricultural system. Consequently, farmers must find ways to support local biotechnology which may well prove be the salvation for their businesses.

A basic point in this regard, which must be stressed, is that understanding the biology of the tropics should not be left to multibilateral institutions, nor to the skills and reach of big temperate country concerns. Knowing the tropics, which is our home, should be our responsibility, and we should make the sacrifice to garner this knowledge and use it to our competitive advantage.

The technologies and thinking, which have served us well in our traditional economic endeavours, are now obsolete. Unfortunately, we have not systematically followed the evolution of the new ways, nor have upgraded our plants to use them. It is time to put obstinate pride aside and openly embrace the new visions and techniques. We must become assertive, yet watchful, in the application of modern methods.

A classical example of what can be accomplished when we throw off old ideological fixes and follow lines of reason, honesty and fair play, is seen in the growth and success of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. This bank is amongst the most successful in Asia and has highlighted, by its success, that the old banking arrangements are impotent to solve the problem of credit for the poor.

The more you have the more you get, is the tenet on which traditional banks are founded. The Grameen Bank, contrastingly, works on the principle that if you have nothing you are eligible for the highest priority. Similarly, the Grameen Bankers do not approve their loans, rather it is a group of borrowers who take collective responsibility for approvals. Furthermore, all transactions of the Bank are held in public not in secrecy, as is the case with traditional banks. The philosophy of the founder of the Grameen Bank is that the conventional banks create institutions of distrust, while banks should create an atmosphere where credit means trust. He also vehemently argues that accepting collateral as the only basis for doing business is to exclude a large segment of the population. Of fundamental and general significance in his line of reasoning, is that the East Asian financial crisis was the result of too much money in the hands of too few people, coupled with the fact that credit was not related to real life situations, but mostly, to pure speculation. There is a poignant message here for Jamaica.

The result of this type of creative reasoning and action is that the Grameen Bank, starting with US$27, has a 98% rate for the repayment of loans, which now total over $2 billion, for 2.3 million people. The bottom line of course is that the bank has begun to seriously tackle poverty, while other banks have not yet found the way. It is rather interesting to note that right here in Jamaica the small scale sector is proving to be more credit worthy than the larger borrowers.

Mr. Chairman, I have taken some time to describe this successful case to point out that revolutionary thinking is what can make a difference. In Jamaica the customary ways have brought us to where we are. We must be savvy enough to focus the scientific method on our problems, take and manage calculated risks, and be willing to share and learn as we progress.

The old technologies have been great contributors to environmental stress and decay and the business community has been the prime beneficiary of these technologies. It is important then for the private sector to realise this and take steps to embrace the new more environmentally friendly technologies. This cannot be done if we passively sit back and wait for these technologies to be brought to us and react only when there is imminent threat of loosing market share. The private sector has to be proactive in building technological and scientific competence and ensuring its most effective use. This will not be possible if private businesses remain unwilling to employ, or support, S&T talent, in their efforts to address local demands.

According to the first ever environmental forecast of technological progress, made only recently, by the year 2000, drinking water will be safer because of smart membranes, filters and other adsorbents, there will be lighter cars, which will average eighty miles to a gallon, and food crops will be engineered genetically to require less pesticides and fertilizers. A paperless society is supposed to be around the corner, micro pumps and chemical plants are predicted, and better batteries are on the way to allow solar and wind energy to come into their own. Wholesomeness of materials for human consumption and the way products are manufactured, will be crafted from scientific logic and the efficiency of scientific technologies. Profound shifts in what will be ethically tolerated in production are therefore anticipated. The message is clear, the standards for trade and the attractiveness of goods and services will directly depend on scientific principles.

Mr. Chairman, we should not only closely follow these developments, but we ought to be seriously seeking ways to influence and participate in these processes, so that they may serve us better, and not make us hapless pawns in loosing economic battles.

The S&T revolution is providing lucrative opportunities, as well as, disruptive challenges. Where we put our resources, deploy our time and engage our intellect will determine how these changes will affect us. For Jamaica there is a crying need to capture higher value from our inimitable raw materials by using existing technology, improved skills and an innovative attitude. This is the only way to retain and increase jobs and in turn a better quality of life for our people.

In considering increased productivity it must be fully recognized that technology pervades all aspects of business activities. It influences the entire range of functions, including marketing, administration and product design. Technology in this regard must not be seen as a static aspect of production. It is a variable that can be changed, improved and modified through the perspicacity of innovative management. As a matter of fact, technology is changing so rapidly in all industrial sectors, that high technology is penetrating many formerly low technology, labour intensive, industries, as well as, the retail trade. It is not cheap labour, and skimping on price, but rather small continuous technological advances, based on imagination, motivation, technical and organizational creativity, and a good reading of changing demands, that count today.

I must remind this august body that technology was not invented to make life better or promote development, it was primarily discovered to confer advantage on certain goods over others. It therefore requires effort to make technology work for us.

Jamaica cannot eat its cake and have it. There must either be eggs or young ones. We cannot expect to have extreme poverty and an orderly violence free society, we cannot expect to promote greed and not expect graft and corruption in high places, we cannot act only for ourselves and expect a harmonious democratic society, we cannot ignore our children and expect them to grow into caring adults, we cannot expect to earn easy money and expect that we will be considered more than shallow people.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, we cannot expect to have a viable economy without investing in the most important aspect of production and social welfare. We cannot ignore the logic of science and yet expect to reap its benefits.